Makoto Nagano is a 35-year old fisherman who is regularly seen on the television show SASUKE, otherwise known in the United States as Ninja Warrior. Nagano spends 300 days a year on his fishing boat, the 28th Konpira Maru, and he uses his boat to train for the Ninja Warrior competitions. He is a champion of the Japanese TV show Ninja Warrior, he is the only contestant to successfully complete all the various obstacle courses since 1999. Nagano supposedly is a disciple of "Mr. SASUKE," Katsumi Yamada.

Nagano is known for his consistency in the tournament. Nagano reached the Final Stage three tournaments in a row (the 11th, 12th, and 13th tournaments), but each time, he failed. The closest he came to winning the tournament was in the Fall 2003 tournament (tournament 12), missing the red button by 0.11 seconds. The other two times, he failed to reach the button, and was dropped back to the bottom of the tower. The very next tournament, Nagano again came within striking distance of the Final Stage, but failed on the Jumping Bars.

Perhaps the strangest failure that Nagano suffered was in the December 2005 tournament. Nagano once again had made his way towards the end of Stage 3. Nagano took his time and rested on the green pipe that is directly before The Devil's Swing obstacle that leads to the Pipe Slider. Instead of trying to generate momentum from an idle position on the trapeze-like Devil's Swing, Nagano instead grasped the Devil's Swing with one arm, and held onto the green pipe with the other. He then swung back and forth, eliminating most of the effort needed to get to the Pipe Slider. However, his brilliant plan hit a snag (literally), when he got caught on the green pipe. Nagano eventually got himself free, and even got a hold on the Pipe Slider, but he couldn't hold on, and the orange pipe slid a short ways down the track. With no other choice but to generate as much momentum as he could, Nagano ultimately fell short of the pipe and failed.

Nagano got his revenge the very next tournament, when he completed all four stages and became the second man ever to finish all four stages and achieve total victory. His victory paved the way for the all-new SASUKE course, which was unveiled at the Spring 2007 tournament.

During the Spring Tournament, Nagano made it all the way to the third stage, but was disqualified when he attempted the Cliff Hanger. The new cliff hanger had the middle bar elevated and farther away from the end of the cliff hanger and was designed so that you had to jump to get across. Nagano cleared the jump, but grabbed onto the top of the cliff hanger instead of the bar and was disqualified.

Nagano is also the only man to have ever made it to the final stage (Final Viking) of Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle Course coming within 5 feet of the finish before running out of time.

To show his proficiency in SASUKE, Nagano, even though admitting he wasn't as ready as he would've liked, shattered the first-stage record, clearing it in 50 seconds, and also holds the speed record for the second stage.

Sasuke (TV series)

Sasuke (サスケ, Sasuke? romanized as SASUKE in Japan) is an obstacle course competition held in Japan. It is produced by Monster9 [1] and broadcasts on the Japanese television network Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) between Japanese television drama seasons. It is one of the spin-offs of Muscle Ranking (筋肉番付, Kinniku Banzuke?), a former TBS physical tournament program.

SASUKE consists of four increasingly difficult obstacle courses. Each competition is taped prior to the air date and is shown as a three-hour show with edits made for time consideration.